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Highly recommended

My two year old son was bought the Crayola no drip water colour for Christmas. This is something I had not heard about but along with other craft stuff my son received it was put on one side as he had far too much to play with.

About a week ago my son discovered it and desperately wanted to paint a picture with a matter of urgency. He tried opening the pack but only succeeded in ripping the cardboard on the back of the pack which meant that I did not get chance to read the instructions on the back but fortunately there are instructions inside the pack. You may be wondering why I would be as bothered about instructions on something as simple as paints but this is not so straight forward.

The pack itself is a blue tray with six different colour tubs: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Each put has a flip top lid which when opened reveals a small hole which you can see a sponge through. My son cannot open the paint pots which is actually a bonus for me. One of the features of this paint set is that you can tip up the paint set upside down with caps removed and it won't spill.

The tray has two paint brushes with clear plastic tops that are simple enough for my son to remove. I find this is useful as it meant I could join in with my son which made it a more of a joint activity which he tends to really enjoy

After reading the instructions I discovered how simple and straight forward it is to use. Firstly you remove the foam base ant moisten this and then replace it in the tray and that is set up done.

You then dip the point of the brush into the hole of your chosen colour and the longer you leave it the move paint is absorbed.

It does advise that you can mix colours but this is best done by dipping into the lightest colour first I assume this is to stop the colours becoming discoloured.

I found my son got the idea of this paint set very quickly and how to get the paint out but he found it took a little longer to get the paint washed off. I also found that he did want to keep dipping in all the pots. . I did try to paint a hedgehog but my son thought it was a jelly fish but I do think this is a reflection of my artistic ability rather than the water colours. You can paint fine lines but with a little more paint can fill is the spaces.

One thing that I did really like about this paint is how fine the brush was and my son did pick up the idea of using it lightly rather than his previous experiences of sploging the brush down. He actually did a bright and colourful picture which he decided was also a hedgehog.

I found my son did have much larger quantities of paint and so we did have to turn pad over to wash the paint off. The pad itself washed really easily just by running under a cold tap and then it was white like new.

This product is advised for children for six years old and older and while I do think my son who will be three next month is slightly too young I would think that a child four years of age would be fine to use this with a little support and explanation of how it works.

Staining .The instructions state that the best way to deal with any paint on the skin and clothes is to wash as soon as possible on a hot cycle but do not use a pre wash or chlorine bleach. I am surprised though how little mess my son made with this product.

I do think this paint set is very different to anything I have seen and do think that it is a great idea that works very well once a child is old enough to understand the concept and skills required.

I think this would be an ideal toy to occupy a child where you need them to sit still for a while but without making to much mess. This is definitely a less messy way to paint and can highly recommend it.

This is available on Amazon for £4.90 with £2.50 postage but also £5 on Woolworths so this does seem to be the average price.